No Irish, No Yanks, No Clogs - FIFA World Cup 2018

So long since Scotland qualified for anything I'm not sure I can remember. Definitely separate commentary and match summarizers - not sure about different pundits?

Probably different pundits too.

Yeah, think we got Kevin Ratcliffe and Barry Horne

this is currently my fav disgusted tweet about england

U lot enthusiastically jumping on "it's coming home"... meanwhile, Brexit, the Windrush scandal and hostile environment policies expose how the English conception of "home" is based on racialised violence and exclusion 👌🏼

— kerem (@KeremBrulee) July 4, 2018

Jose Pekerman's switch to a 3-5-2 left England bereft of ideas and swapped with crosses which eventually resulting in a late equaliser

Was this subheading written by a neural network?

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/colombia-dirty-shithouse-tactics-england-world-cup-backfired/

This sort of reads like a series of propaganda blurbs that would adorn a triumphalist mural of some kind many years later, teaching the youngsters the importance of sacrificing onesself in times of war and not rising to the dirty tricks of foreigners

The pen, the headbutt and the coach barging Sterling all sort of seem pretty straightforwardly daft though, even with limited sympathy for the England national team

Phil McNulty actually referred to "hostile environment" >:[ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44706526

LOL lefties conflating England with the UK, one of the all-time bugbears of everyone else in the UK.

“Instead, England won and while there can be no guarantees, being in a half of draw that now includes Sweden, Russia and Croatia is unquestionably preferable to one containing Brazil, Uruguay, France and Belgium.”

Yes it’s good England stayed out of the bracket with Belgium.

“Instead, England won and while there can be no guarantees, being in a half of draw that now includes Sweden, Russia and Croatia is unquestionably preferable to one containing Brazil, Uruguay, France and Belgium.”

Yes it’s good England stayed out of the bracket with Belgium.

would love a rematch personally - wish they'd met in the first group game

I am not much of a football fan, and regularly turn into a prick every four years, so I won't shite up the thread too much, but there were a couple of things. These opinions are probably present elsewhere on ILX, 4 or 8 or 12 years ago - soz.

I followed (from afar) Jack's Army in Germany '88 and Italia '90, and it was great to feel the buzz from scraping through where we clearly shouldn't - the first team to progress to the quarter finals without winning a match in 90 or 120 minutes! So it was bemusing to see how the English team seemed to avoid that buzz in favour of ridiculous expectations.

I mean, I'm 30 years older now, I get it - but it still seems weird.

And of course any competition in 2018 pitting ENG vs BEL has some trails, I saw an article on BBC Sport saying "England are the sole team in their half of the draw to have won the World Cup and only Sweden, in 1958, have ever reached the final. Last-16 opponents Colombia have only been to the quarter-finals once, in 2014" and it's just this still-there nonsense about however long it is since we were on top we're still a big dog.

I realise this disgruntlement is made more awkward by the reports that this is actually a half-way decent team, and I hold you all responsible.

xp okay but if Belgium win a second time Brexit's off, right?

I saw an article on BBC Sport saying "England are the sole team in their half of the draw to have won the World Cup and only Sweden, in 1958, have ever reached the final. Last-16 opponents Colombia have only been to the quarter-finals once, in 2014" and it's just this still-there nonsense about however long it is since we were on top we're still a big dog.

honestly think this speaks more to rolling sports news' zeal for filling bandwidth with pointless historical stats than empty jingoism, altho I don't doubt there's enough of the latter in there also. if Tunisia were in the QFs instead of England that passage would prob still have been written in alternate form

The stats are certainly wasted on the speak-to-gut far-right phonies who don't even remember England winning a single shootout before.

Is there a Nultism for Beginners Guide we can resort to here?

If I recall correctly the BBC's advert for their coverage of Ireland vs Norway at USA 94 was a comedy musical number with When Irish Eyes Are Smiling having the lyrics changed from "sure they'll steal your heart away" to "they'll be sure to beat Norway"

Sort of nominal support but through a lens of comically exaggerated caterwauling Irishness

I remember this, but remember nothing at all of the subsequent goalless draw, which I gather is to my advantage

Scholes, innit?

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 4 July 2018 11:53 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Scholes?

― groovypanda, Wednesday, 4 July 2018 11:54 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Scholes?

― groovypanda, Wednesday, 4 July 2018 11:54 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Daniel Sturridge has signed for Chelsea

as someone who's been on (very amateur) radio and does a podcast*, i'm EXTREMELY WELL AWARE that the twin dangers are the thing yr trying to say coming out desperately wrong and problematic versus the dead air that results when you try and be careful and clear, so on the whole i'm more entertained than angry at the weird nonsense that pops out of commentator mouths. yes sometimes it speaks to bad stuff and tired unthought clogging up their souls, as often i think it's just inadvertent dada poetry

caveat: i only engage with football once every four years so (a) i'm not jaded but (b) i have no idea what i'm talking about

•subscribe to my patreon

honestly think this speaks more to rolling sports news' zeal for filling bandwidth with pointless historical stats than empty jingoism, altho I don't doubt there's enough of the latter in there also. if Tunisia were in the QFs instead of England that passage would prob still have been written in alternate form

It was part of an entire article on "There's no big dogs left on this side" - I'm sure the TBC would be writing something similar, and I hope the Colombian press were writing the same, but I suspect there's only one that would have "NEVER IN DOUBT" on the tabloids after a win on penalties.

feeling lost w/out a match to watch rn

NEVER IN DOUBT works quite well as a headline in this context because its modern use as regards narrow football results such as this one is like 75% ironic 25% chestbeating

"...cold England..."

Not at the moment!

If I was an England fan I'd be excited, they're on the way to the World Cup final, Sweden are nothing and they can definitely beat either Russia or Croatia.

Croatia?

kind of hilarious the noise Colombia are making about Mark Geiger. yes, he was shit, but he was most of the reason you inexplicably finished with 11 men

a Croatia final would be kinda cool

(xp) Isn't that who they're scheduled to meet in the semis?

i thought he was just questioning the confidence of them easily beating Croatia

Croatia can beat Southgate's England

If I hated the thought of England going all the way I would definitely be talking up their chances against similar quality opposition (in tournament context you understand) too.

Who said anything about easily? Southgate's England can beat Croatia, that seems pretty obvious to me.

tom d engaging in some subtle jinxing here

England are too much a work in progress to inspire much confidence for me, although, frankly, the same might be said for any of these contenders. Is a France vs England final possible?

Cat. Bag.(xp)

(xp) They're not that good, but neither are Croatia.

Not sure of the starting forwards then new_legs sub combo for England but Southgate hasn't inspired me much yet

If Belgium do what, on paper, they're capable of, they should go all the way

England might do something on paper

Sort of nominal support but through a lens of comically exaggerated caterwauling

this is our culture you're talking about

The only teams who have looked particularly convincing in the knockouts are France, Brazil and Uruguay and the winner is pretty obviously going to come from one of those three. I've booked Friday afternoon off because that game looks like an absolute belter.

Brazil and Uruguay conceding just the single goal so far still too.

and France conceding FAR too many

A lot of people also seem to be forgetting that Sweden finished top of Germany's group and knocked out the Netherlands and Italy in qualifying.

A bit of luck on the day and any of the teams on this side of the draw are capable of reaching the final.

Their performances make it easy to forget tbf.

A lot of people also seem to be forgetting that Sweden finished top of Germany's group and knocked out the Netherlands and Italy in qualifying

otoh they were the only team beaten by germany in their group, were beaten and drew against the netherlands in qualifying, and only just knocked out italy after a draw and a one nil

Also these are pretty much the worst Italian and Dutch teams of our lifetimes.

And possibly the worst Swedish side too.

david goldblatt on the englishness of the england team

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/alternative-nation-180705052626559.html

he's also got a cracking podcast which has had some good content from round the world for the wc

https://gameofourlives.fm/

bar the obligatory tacked-on remoaning that's a good piece, there are definitely aspects of it that have crossed my mind in the run-up to the tournament. this

The football so far is not the stuff of which a new epic or enlightened English narrative can be weaved

little diamond of realness really gives the article legit credibility.